History
The history of Choll is one of long lasting eras interupted by small periods of great change. Old maps from before the Uprising depict wars multiple land masses the size of the combined total of the known world. Even more ancient maps found on the walls of ruins, carved into stone or etched in ancient devices show of a world with the archipelago of the known world as the southern chunk of a larger continent four times it's size, and three continients that size yet again across vast stretches of ocean. As much as the knowledge of the world has grown, even the ability to explore it having become incredibly viable, the actual act of exploration is one filled with needless danger into areas long given up as casualties of the deific clashes that made up the upheaval. A small few, barely a half dozen men across the archipelago have learned something of what happened farther back through magic, research and the exploration of forgotten tombs. Creation It is impossible to know what was before. But there was a time when the world of Choll was one of great extremes. Blizzards that never died, volcanoes throwing fire into the air, hurricanes and tornadoes that tore great holes in the very face of the earth, resulting in earthquakes that caused only more lava to spew into the air. From this cycle of creation and descruction a bodiless sentience formed. It watched, it saw the cycle. It was delighted when something was created but saddened when it was invariably destroyed. Eventually it grew to love the entirety of the cycle, but it craved the ability to do more than watch. It wanted to create. This being learned to sap energy. To take the tiniest heat from a buring flame, the tinest energy from a ravaging tornado. Eventually from this raw energy, he created a marionette. A body of sorts he could occupy, to use as his own. Finally he could create. For millenia untold he created. He created mountains, trees, oceans, he crafted the primal world into something that could extend the cycle from the days or hours that creations could last, into years or centuries. One day, he wondered if he could create something like himself. He toiled for many years until he finally was able to give life to another being. This was the first of the gods. He continued with his creations, delighting in the sheer number of forms he could make life into. Each was yet another deity. Soon hundreds of powerful deities roamed the newly calmed earth, but they were forbade from creating themselves. The creator was not a wise creature, but more an infinately powerful child selfishly holding his ability to create to himself. Eventually his subjects grew tired of their lives.They wished to be able to form stone into a brick. To turn a river into a series of streams. Then they rebelled. The Creator had been so disapointed in destruction he had never learned how while his children were left with only destruction. His body was destroyed, the sentient force was again let into the universe in it's raw form and his children, the deities, could steal his secrets of creation. Formation The deities could now create. The world changed rapidly but it wasn't long before the deities wanted to create life. Soon each one was creating their own pet projects, or banding together to do so. They grew diverse, each holding onto strange and unique moral ideals, butting heads with their brothers who held similar but slightly different, or opposing ideals. They stopped focusing on creation and fell back, starting to focus on protecting their chosen domains. Domains that they found gave them power. The creatures they had crafted after themselves, the monstrous and mindless failures, the simplistic animals that were the first basic successes, they inherited the world as the gods turned to their next great creations. Their own planes to exist on. Homes where they could be safe. The world was left to the weak creations. Mortal creatures that could only create duplicates of themselves, who degraded over time. The weakeness though resulted in great diversity and great creativity. The world flourished under the reign of countless different forms of life. The Return Eventually the deities, with their homes finished, started to return. The differences had become more pronounced from one another. As one by one they returned to the world where they had been born, the found tribes and great cities, magic and power under the control of these weaker races. The races turned to the gods that had founded them, creatures of myth and legend and fell to their knees in worship. But even among the pantheons who had shared creation of specific races or variations, there was infighting. The followers split as well. Each detiy had found that having more followers meant more power. Still though, no wars broke out among the deities. For millenia after millenia, era after era, nation after nation. Races rose and fell. The world was discovered and explored only to be lost again to the sands of time as a great people fell. The Uprising The elven pantheon united for a single night. In that night the skies turned to blood as an entire pantheon of humans was slaughtered, only leaving a handful of survivors. The reprisal from other deities who feared the usurp of power was swift. Within days the relative peace of the world was lost. Some areas were hit harder than others. The entire land shattered and sent spinning into the sea, leaving only ruins of their existance. Others were warped into horrors of their former selves. Some were harmed less. The peoples were lucky, they survived. Only when a more than a hundred years had passed did the fighting stop. The deities suddenly realized that they had grown weaker. The few surviving gods realized that their followers had stopped caring about race. They had grown to distrust the deities they had worshiped for so long. They reallized that the deities did not care for them as single entities and as such had turned to other methods of gaining their goals. Technology. Arcana. Psionics. Other and more strange forms of power. But no longer was the magic of creation and destruction, that of divine magic, sought after. It was reviled as bowing down to soulless tyrants. The New World The modern world is a ravaged place. Vast stretches of terrifying wilderness, some that merge randomly with other planes of existence, others simply featuring beastial or primitive terrors. Each fragment of civilization has reacted and survived in a different way, turning to different concepts, faiths and ideas to not only survive their tragedies, but flourish.